Nakamura Officially World's #3 on FIDE’s January Rating List

America's number one grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura moved to #3 in the world rankings by January 1st, 2014, when the new FIDE rating list was published. Nakamura reached his highest position ever with a 2789 rating, two points more than Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. World Champion Magnus Carlsen tops the list with 2872 (tied for his all-time high); Levon Aronian is still in second place with 2812.

Sergey Karjakin of Russia re-entered the world's top 10 thanks to a modest 3-point rating gain, which makes it clear how close the players are in spots 10-14. The biggest gap at the top is between Karjakin and #9 Anand: 14 points. Vassily Ivanchuk jumped back to spot #16, after falling to #22 previously.

There were hardly any changes in the women's list compared to the previous list in November. Because the FIDE ratings weren't covered here for a while, let's recap the situation: Judit Polgar of Hungary is clear first, obviously. In fact she has been the world's number one among women for exactly 25 years! World Champion Hou Yifan of China is the best of the rest, with 64 points less, followed by Humpy Koneru of India. It's only these three women who have a 2600+ rating and the gap with the rest is substantial: #4 is Zhao Xue of China with 2567.